For one reason or another, I kept losing one of the armor spikes I was working on today. There’s a total of 8 in various sizes, but I was always losing one of the smallest ones. One time I’d forgotten it in my wet sanding tank. Another it was behind a bottle of paint. And one time, it had found near perfect camouflage..

Laying out the gauntlet to see how it’s going. Some of the spikes are in paint right now, but should be attached shortly. Once all the spikes are bonded to their armor plates, I can finally assemble this thing rather than just laying the parts on top of each other for looks.

This part of armoring is kind of fun – I have some parts that are in near-final paint, others that are being painted, some that are just about ready for paint, and others that are still in the very early stages of construction.

Based on some emails and comments on this site, I’ve decided to write a small eBook, kind of a primer on cosplay armor. I’m hoping to cover things like styles of armor creation, materials, care & transport, and more. If it does well, I hope to expand it or write additional volumes with more detail on advanced subjects, like fiberglass armor.

Question time!

What subjects would you like to see covered in the book?

Would you be willing to proofread the book at various stages to be sure it’s covering what you need? (Note – you don’t need to be a cosplay armorer for this. In fact, I hope to get a variety of opinions, from armor makers to complete novices)

Do you have photos, articles, or chapters that you’d like to contribute?

Last night, I was over at a friend’s house playing a P&P RPG (7th Sea). The game went late, as such things do, and I was getting ready to drive home around midnight. I was backing down his driveway in the country, making extra sure to avoid the fence to my right.. and veered too far to my left, going off the driveway and into the ditch:

Yes, extremely stupid of me. I should’ve turned around first, as there were no lights behind me and I really couldn’t see if I was on the driveway path or not. Lessons learned. Thankfully, my insurance company was able to get me a tow truck within about 45 minutes, which was able to pull my car out. We looked the car over and realized there was no real damage except for the front bumper, so I was comfortable driving it home (apparently the tow truck’s home base was along the route back to my house, I followed him most of my trip back). In the morning, I popped the bumper back into place:

All in all, I feel pretty lucky. It was a dumb move backing up when it was so dark and I wasn’t sure I was on the path. I could’ve done a lot of damage to the car if I’d hit the ditch differently, or if it was deeper. Next time, I just need to make sure I back into their driveway when we have a game night. For now, I need to wash off the mud and grass stuck to the side of the bumper seen above.